Author Archives: Zuzanna Walter

2026: The Year of Cognitive Longevity

Human beings have been chasing longevity since the days of Herodotus in ancient Greece. What’s changed since then is that living longer is now a reality, driven by a combination of modern medicine, biotechnology, science, and public health. Today’s advances in cardiovascular care, oncology, infectious disease, and metabolic management would have astonished the ancient Greek philosopher known as the Father of History, who chronicled tales of a “fountain of youth” in 450 BCE, and the extended lifespans we enjoy today — 86.5 is the average in top-rated Monaco, 79.5 in the US — would have been unimaginable.

Modern longevity experts want more. Advances in cardiovascular prevention, cancer therapy, infectious disease control, and metabolic management have dramatically reduced early mortality and extended lifespan across populations, but the concept of cognitive longevity is increasingly being added to the human wish list. Not only do humans want to live longer, but we want to do so without the progressive cognitive decline that too often goes hand in hand with aging.

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Overheard At LongevityFest 2025: 5 Key Insights To Integrate For 2026 Practice Success

The longevity field has reached an inflection point: practitioners can extend lifespan, but the real clinical challenge lies in preserving the function and capacity that make those years worth living. Cognitive decline, muscle loss, and metabolic dysfunction are just a few of the conditions widening the gap between lifespan and healthspan as patients age without sustainable physiologic resilience.

Against this backdrop, LongevityFest 2025 unfolded December 12-14 at the Venetian Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas. Over three intensive days, more than 9,000 healthcare practitioners engaged with 170+ leading experts across 220+ specialized sessions. This year’s record-setting gathering created a vital nexus for exploring the interventions that preserve brainspan, build metabolic resilience, and protect the physiologic systems that determine how patients age.

The following insights represent a fraction of what attendees learned and are implementing in 2026, including the frameworks, tools, and intervention strategies emerging from the world’s largest longevity medicine event that translate directly to patient care and practice success, putting them way ahead of the curve.

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Protein and Lifespan: The Case for an Ad Libitum Diet

The concept of eating for longevity has been around for thousands of years — it was, after all, Hippocrates who advised “Let food be thy medicine” back in the fourth century BCE. Modern health and aging experts agree with the Father of Medicine, but have differing ideas about the kind of diet that provides optimum lifespan benefits. Now that a new study published in Aging Cell shows lifespan benefits associated with an ad libitum diet, some experts may be rethinking their dietary recommendations.

The study found that high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets were associated with an increased risk of disease and mortality in rodent models, suggesting that a more comprehensive evaluation of such regimens should be undertaken. In terms of eating to influence health and lifespan, the study concluded that a low-protein, high-carbohydrate (LPHC) diet, diluted 25% with non-digestible fiber, could be an effective way to improve both health parameters and lifespan.

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